More Buffy season eight comic details

Remember the Buffy comic book - the one that's supposed to pick up with season eight, where the series left off? The project was announced nearly a year ago. An October 2006 release was promised. That promise went unfulfilled, and with all of Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman, Astonishing X-Men and Goners-related business taking precedent, the smart money put the comic on the back burner - as in, not to be seen any time soon.

Well, guess what, Buffy fans? New details have emerged. Entertainment Weekly has the scoop on the Scooby gang's post-Sunnydale doings. First up, a new release date. Dark Horse is aiming for a March 07 debut. Second, nothing much has changed in terms of the comic's initial premise. The series will act as Buffy's eighth season. Sunnydale is gone. Buffy and Dawn are in Rome. She's dating, fighting evil and making sense of a world full of girls newly-endowed with Slayer power.

Here's what new:

- The comic will run like a TV show. Whedon will write the first four issues as a premise-establishing pilot. He'll then oversee a team of writers who will take on the remaining "episodes" of the 25 to 30 issue saga.

- The comic will incorporate elements of a spin-off series Whedon toyed with called Slayer School. "There will be some new slayers that you'll meet, and by the second issue, you'll find out there are different camps across the world being run by various characters that fans will know."

- Xander is dealing with Anya's death, but according to Whedon, not in the way we think. Just as time has passed for audience members, time has passed since we last saw our Scooby friends. While the comic represents an eighth season for Buffy, the comic will acknowledge that we have some catching-up to do.

- Angel and Spike will appear in the comic, but not much. The characters are owned by another comic publisher, and Whedon's intentions have always been to use the two sparingly.

- Willow will be back, but not in the first issue.

And, did I mention pictures? The EW story has a handful of images from the new comic. All I can think to say is, "Hooray!"